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Super, Sure. But Who Asked Them?

In late November, the Democratic superdelegates from New York met in Virginia, at a gathering of the party’s national committee. All but three or four people in the room wore buttons that said “Hillary.”

One of the few without a pin was Ralph Dawson, a labor lawyer. And as of this week, he still is not wearing one — or, for that matter, a Barack Obama button, either.

Superdelegates are party operatives and elected officials who do not have to go through a primary but still get a vote at the nominating convention. They are not formally obliged to support any candidate.

Normally they are ignored. In one of this election year’s startling developments, they could have a decisive voice in selecting the Democratic nominee, because it is possible that neither Mrs. Clinton nor Mr. Obama will come out of the primaries and state caucuses with enough delegates for the nomination.

“All of a sudden,” Mr. Dawson said, “we have capes on.”

The superdelegate apparatus has been in place since 1982, giving people who are more active in party politics the possibility of a louder voice in the process. Only this year are some of its less-than-democratic consequences so plainly visible. In New York, for instance, about 90 percent of the 45 superdelegates have already promised to support Senator Clinton at the convention.

That means virtually none of them will be representing the views of the 40 percent of the New York Democrats who voted for Senator Obama. He may be able to persuade some to change sides, but few superdelegates seem likely to break their promises.

“You’re not going to go far in this business if you tell somebody you’re with them and then switch,” said one of the superdelegates, José E. Serrano, a congressman from the Bronx.

In Illinois, those who voted for Senator Clinton — about one-third of the Democrats — are finding that she so far has received the public support of only one of the state’s 29 superdelegates, according to a tally by the Web site Politico.com. Mr. Obama has received 18 public promises of support, which is proportional to his share of the Illinois vote; the remaining superdelegates are undeclared.

Many of the New York superdelegates are familiar names — including every member of Congress, the state’s two United States senators, the governor and the speaker of the Assembly — but how did Ralph Dawson end up in this position?

“I go a long way back with Howard Dean,” Mr. Dawson said. “We were roommates in college.”

He worked on Mr. Dean’s unsuccessful campaign for the Democratic nomination in 2004, then helped him again as he maneuvered to become chairman of the Democratic National Committee. “He appointed me to the Democratic National Committee,” Mr. Dawson said, thus making him a superdelegate.

Now, family and friends are leaning on him. “I get bombarded by one side or the other,” he said.

His hope, he said, is that the nomination will be decided before the convention begins on Aug. 25 in Denver. “One side or the other could develop sufficient momentum” to capture the nomination, Mr. Dawson said. The arithmetic makes this unlikely.

And if it’s not settled before the convention? “I’m not afraid, as some seem to be, that the superdelegates won’t do the right thing,” Mr. Dawson said. Meaning? “I think their decision will be informed by who they think has the best chance to win an election,” he said, taking into account how the rank-and-file party members voted.

In the Brooklyn Congressional district represented by Edolphus Towns, Mr. Obama won 57 percent of the votes. Like every other member of Congress from New York, Mr. Towns has promised his support as a superdelegate to Senator Clinton. He could not speak about the matter yesterday because of a bad cold, a spokeswoman said.

Gregory W. Meeks, a member of Congress from Queens, is in the same political position — his district voted for Mr. Obama over Mrs. Clinton, 55 percent to 44 percent. How do his constituents feel about his promise to support Mrs. Clinton at the convention?

“Some like it, some don’t,” Mr. Meeks said. “It goes with the territory. You’ve got to do what you think is right with the information you have. You can’t lead if you don’t. Would it be helpful to my district if she was president of the United States? Absolutely.”

For Mr. Serrano, there is no schism: his constituents voted overwhelmingly for Senator Clinton. But he pointed out a freakish dimension to this year’s contests.

On June 7, the final Democratic primary of the year will be held in Puerto Rico, with 63 delegates at stake. Puerto Ricans, as American citizens, are entitled to vote in the primary. But as residents of an American territory, not a state, they are not permitted to vote in November.

“They may play a major role, if not a deciding role, in who the Democratic nominee for the next president will be,” Mr. Serrano said. “Yet the minute the convention is over, they go home and don’t vote in November.”